Guernsey Water customer survey results highlighting key points

Guernsey Water recently conducted an online customer survey to find out what individuals and businesses thought about its performance across a broad range of topics.

Using The Institute of Customer Service, an independent professional body for customer service, results were compared against utility companies in the UK through the Institute's Business Benchmarking survey.

Chris Hall, Guernsey Water's customer service manager said: "We constantly strive to improve our customers' experience so we are proud that our customers are rating us so highly compared with other utilities and businesses."

Guernsey Water's business benchmark score was 79.5, which puts the organisation above the UK national average of 78.2 for all sectors - as outlined in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, which is based on a survey of 10,000 customers. The score is also comfortably above the national average for utilities of 75.1.

Guernsey Water's customers were most satisfied with the competence of staff, helpfulness of staff and ease of getting through over the phone; email contacts were also felt to be dealt with very well. They were least satisfied with commitments not being met, the speed of resolving their complaint and the outcome of their complaint.

"The results have highlighted some key customer satisfaction points which we need to work on. There are also a number of more direct comments that we need to address regarding charges and taste in particular," said Mr Hall.

The results of the Guernsey Water survey were benchmarked against up-to-date statistics calculated on the same basis as other utilities in the UK so that important comparisons could be made.

These benchmarks enable businesses to identify strengths and weaknesses, understand how customers communicate with them and how satisfaction varies according to the form of communication, as well as looking at the range of scores achieved by other organisations.

"This is the first survey we have conducted with the Institute of Customer Service, it is a good indicator of how we are performing and will help us improve.

"Over the coming months we will be engaging with our customers to understand their thoughts on the results, as well as working hard to further improve our overall service," said Mr Hall.